Contagion

In the decade since the 9/11 attacks, we have seen terrorism as a real threat to destroying the human race. Now only fifty years ago the biggest threat was nuclear war. As far as Hollywood thrillers these subjects have been made into major productions with big name stars, but it has been a long time since a movie was made about mankind’s first mortal threat: disease. “Contagion” explores how catching a simple cough can not only kill a person in 48 hours, but spread like wildfire all over the world.

We open on a character named Beth played by Gwyneth Paltrow (Se7en, Shakespeare in Love). Beth is on a business trip in Hong Kong while also having an extramarital affair, but that’s not what this is about. When she comes home to Minnesota, she is violently ill. Her husband Mitch, an everyman Matt Damon (The Informant!, The Adjustment Bureau), can do nothing to help Beth as she dies shortly after. Upon an autopsy, it is revealed that Beth was fatally infected with an unknown disease, which has killed Mitch’s young son and may have infected him too. Along the same lines a team of researchers and government scientists begin working every possibility to try to stop this disease that is now killing hundreds of people worldwide each day. Some ideas have results, but most have disappointment and further death. The media is sending wrong information, homeopathic remedies are being called cures, and the general populace is in full-scale panic. After several months millions of people are dead, the rest are living like animals while committing crimes ranging from theft and looting to abduction and murder. All the while the world waits for something, anything, that can stop this horrible disease.

Director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Che) has taken a thrilling screenplay and made it work beautifully on screen. When you watch these big Hollywood actors (not conclusive to Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet), they are stripped of big speeches and glamour to look like middle-class business executives and disease detectives. The narrative structure itself has more side stories than a Robert Altman film, weaving one character’s events into another’s for better, or worse. Now we have seen apocalyptic movies before, but Scott Burns’ screenplay makes the end of the world seem real, and that much more frightening. My only complaint in this movie is the ending which results in a small high school prom dance, draining the tension that has been going on for 106 minutes.

If there is one thing the bubonic plague taught the world it’s that mankind is not invincible. “Contagion” makes that point clear in an entertaining, white-knuckle thriller you’ll want to watch twice.